Please see the notes at the end for some typographical corrections made in this version (source

http://www.harekrsna.de/damodarastakam-e.htm). Also, I have used the Arial Unicode MS font

which gives the classical Sanskrit representations as seen here. Mangal font seems like the
default font used by many and it yields what I feel is rather unconventional representations
(although easy to follow). We will soon be unable to read classical Sanskrit if this trend continues.
Tamil transliteration and a one-pager version is also included.

(not )
( is even better, means held or bound, and compliments nicely the idea
of baddham expressed in verse 2)

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nammvara sac-cid-nanda-rpa
lasat-kuala gokule bhrjamanam
yaod-bhyulkhald dhvamna
parmam atyantato dhrutya gopy 1
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rudanta muhur netra-yugma mjantam
karmboja-yugmena staka-netram
muhu vsa-kampa-trirekhka-kaha
sthita-agraiva dmodara bhakti-baddham 2
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itdk sva-llbhir nanda-kue
sva-ghoa nimajjantam khypayantam
tadyeita-jeu bhaktair jitatva
puna prematas ta atvtti vande 3

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vara deva moka na mokvadhi v
na caanya ve ha vared apha
ida te vapur ntha gopla-bla
sad me manasy virst kim anyai 4
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(+; is also used)

ida te mukhmbhojam atyanta-nlair

vta kuntalai snigdha-raktai ca gopy
muhu cumbita bimba-raktdhara me
manasy virstm ala laka-lbhai 5

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namo deva dmodarnanta vio

prasda prabho dukha-jlbdhi-magnam
kp-di-vyti-dna batnu
ghea mm ajam edhyaki-dya 6
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kuvertmajau baddha-mrtyaiva yadvat
tvay mocitau bhakti-bhjau ktau ca
tath prema-bhakti svak me prayaccha
na moke graho me sti dmodareha 7
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namas te stu dmne sphurad-dpti-dhmne
tvadyodarytha vivasya dhmne
namo rdhikyai tvadya-priyyai
namo nanta-llya devya tubhyam 8

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Notes on typographical corrections made here

(I do hope attention will be paid to these comments. I see these
types of mistakes quite frequently and if not corrected will be
perpetuated and will ultimately be harmful to the cause.)
1. Anusvaar (dot on top of a consonant) is NOT used when it appears at the end of
a sentence (or the line of a verse), and if followed by a vowel sound; hence

not in the title of this prayer. The correct usage is seen in last line of verse 4
before kim. Also, see alam in last line, verse 5 where dot can be used above
the la. Similarly with idam in the first line.
2. Verse 1, last line, (not ), see verse 3, line 1 where it is used
correctly. Actually, means held in high esteem. Here the correct word
is Dhrutya, which means tied together, bound.
3. In verses 2 ad 5 it is amboja and there is no bh sound as in abhaya.
4. The biggest problem is third line of verse 1, with the compound word
Yashodaa.... etc. What is to follow this? In the poet's imagination, baby Krishna
was running away from (hence pancami case is to be used since pancami case
has to with from something) Mother Yashoda who was chasing Him as He was
dragging the "ulookhala", the grinding mortar stone. Hence, the compound word
is Yashodaa+abhi+ulookhala = Yashodaabhyalookhalaat. Recall the compound
word abhi+upaiti = abhyupaiti found in Ganesha Pancaratnam. This is similar.
1) To the Supreme Lord, whose form is the embodiment of eternal existence,
knowledge, and bliss, whose shark-shaped earrings are swinging to and fro, who is
beautifully shining in the divine realm of Gokula, who I (due to the offense of breaking
the pot of yogurt that His mother was churning into butter and then stealing the butter
that was kept hanging from a swing) is quickly running from the wooden grinding
mortar in fear of mother Yasoda, but who has been caught from behind by her who ran
after Him with greater speed--to that Supreme Lord, Sri Damodara, I offer my humble
obeisances.
2) (Seeing the whipping stick in His mother's hand) He is crying and rubbing His eyes
again and again with His two lotus hands. His eyes are filled with fear, and the necklace
of pearls around His neck, which is marked with three lines like a conch shell, is shaking
because of His quick breathing due to crying. To this Supreme Lord, Sri Damodara,
whose belly is bound not with ropes but with His mother's pure love, I offer my humble
obeisances.
3) By such childhood pastimes as this He is drowning the inhabitants of Gokula in pools
of ecstasy, and is revealing to those devotees who are absorbed in knowledge of His
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supreme majesty and opulence that He is only conquered by devotees whose pure love
is imbues with intimacy and is free from all conceptions of awe and reverence. With
great love I again offer my obeisances to Lord Damodara hundreds and hundreds of
times.
4) O Lord, although You are able to give all kinds of benedictions, I do not pray to You
for the boon of impersonal liberation, nor the highest liberation of eternal life in
Vaikuntha, nor any other boon (which may be obtained by executing the nine processes
of bhakti). O Lord, I simply wish that this form of Yours as Bala Gopala in Vrndavana may
ever be manifest in my heart, for what is the use to me of any other boon besides this?

5) O Lord, Your lotus face, which is encircled by locks of soft black hair tinged with red, is
kissed again and again by mother Yasoda, and Your lips are reddish like the bimba fruit.
May this beautiful vision of Your lotus face be ever manifest in my heart. Thousands and
thousands of other benedictions are of no use to me.
6) O Supreme Godhead, I offer my obeisances unto You. O Damodara! O Ananta! O
Vishnu! O master! O my Lord, be pleased upon me. By showering Your glance of mercy
upon me, deliver this poor ignorant fool who is immersed in an ocean of worldly sorrows,
and become visible to my eyes.
7) O Lord Damodara, just as the two sons of Kuvera--Manigriva and Nalakuvara--were
delivered from the curse of Narada and made into great devotees by You in Your form as
a baby tied with rope to a wooden grinding mortar, in the same way, please give to me
Your own prema-bhakti. I only long for this and have no desire for any kind of liberation.
8) O Lord Damodara, I first of all offer my obeisances to the brilliantly effulgent rope
which binds Your belly. I then offer my obeisances to Your belly, which is the abode of
the entire universe. I humbly bow down to Your most beloved Srimati Radharani, and I
offer all obeisances to You, the Supreme Lord, who displays unlimited pastimes.
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This song is sung during the month of Kartik, also known as the month of Damodara.
As quoted in the Sri Hari-Bhakti-Vilasa, "In Kartika one should worship Lord Damodara
and daily recite the prayer known as Damodarastaka, which has been spoken by the
sage Satyavrata and which attracts Lord Damodara. (Sri Hari-bhakti-vilasa 2.16.198).

When Lord Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, appears on earth, He

performs extraordinary pastimes as a transcendental cowherd boy. As a child, Lord
Krsna lived with His pure devotees in the village of Vrndavana, or Gokula. In the
spiritual world (Vaikuntha) the Lord, in His form called Narayana, is worshiped with
great awe and reverence, but the devotees in Vrndavana have such great love for
the Lord that they even forget that He is the Lord. Because of their intense love for
Him, they think of Him as their friend, son or lover. And the Lord, to please His
devotees, responds in the roles in which the devotees think of Him.
As a transcendental pastime, Lord Krsna used to steal butter from the gopis, the
ladies of Vrndavana. Once, however, His mother caught Him, bound His waist with
a rope, and tied Him to a grinding mortar to punish Him. The Lord is therefore also
known as Damodara (dama means "rope," and udara means "waist").
In Lord Krsna's courtyard were two trees, who were actually sons of the demigod
Kuvera but had been cursed to stand as trees. By His mercy, Lord Krsna crawled
between these trees, dragging the heavy mortar behind Him, and pulled the trees
down, thus liberating Kuvera's two sons. The details of these pastimes are
described in Srila Prabhupada's book entitled Krsna, the Supreme Personality of
Godhead.
The eight-verse prayer on the following page is chanted daily by devotees during
the Krsna conscious month of Damodara (November).

Download complete PDF with Sanskrit

click your right mouse button: save as:

Damodarastakam.pdf German - Deutsche bersetzung

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Copy of Email dated Oct 28, 2008 sent to our Gita groups
Dear All:
Please find below the Tamil transliteration of Damodara Ashtakam. It is
considered to be extremely auspicious to chant this during Karthik masam (the
current month). The meaning of the shlokas was provided with the earlier
post. (http://www.google.com/transliterate/indic/Tamil)

( ,

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These verses begin with the devotee offering humble obeisances to The Supreme
Lord (namaami eshwaram) in verse 1 and end with an ecstatic singing in verse 8
where the devotee offers humble obeisances to the very rope (namas-the-sthu
dhamne) that is birlliantly effulgent (sphurath deepthi dhamne) and binds the belly
(thvadheeyodhara-yaatha) of The Lord, within which is the abode of the entire
universe (vishwasya dhaamne).
If we take the last dhaamne as dhhaamne, the latter word actually mean abode (as
in dhhaama, .)While means a rope, means the abode. The name
Damodara is derived by blending rope and stomach, or belly).

In His infinite mercy, when He found that His Mother Yashoda was getting
exhausted, after repeatedly finding the many strands of ropes that she tried to use
to tie Him up were falling short, always by a breadth of two fingers, regardless of
how many ropes she strung together, He finally agreed to be bound not by her rope
but by her bhakthi (verse 2, Damodaram bhakthi bhad-dham). The implication
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being that nobody can really bind The Lord, He is the entire Universe, but He can
still indeed be bound by His devotees (see * below).
Mother Yashoda was a great devotee, blessed to have The Lord as her child and
although the queen of Nanda Maharaja, she engaged all of her maidservants, quite
intentionally, in other duties, so that she could churn the milk and make fresh
butter that He could enjoy. When The Lord, as a child, came to her to suck her
overflowing breasts, she was momentarily distracted by the milk that she
was boiling and that had started overflowing in a heated pot nearby. She tried to
attend to this problem and in her haste she withdrew her breast from the suckling
infant Lord who then displayed a fake anger and broke the milk pots for so being
interfered with His pleasure.
The rest of the story is well known but is not so well known is that this actually
happened on Deepavali day.
* It is also telling in this context to recall the famous Purusha Sooktham,
Sahastra sheersha Purusha-ha, Sahastraaksha-h Sahastra-paath
Sa bhoomim vishwa-tho vruthwa athya-thish-ttah dashaangulam
Here He is described as protruding beyond the Universe by the breadth of ten
(dasha) fingers (angulam). One can never know the width of the Universe (never
mind what modern cosmologists lead you to believe!). He will always protrude
beyond and the entire universe, just as His belly always protruded beyond the
ropes found by His mother, and the entire Universe will always be situated within
Him.
Very sincerely

V. Laxmanan
Oct 28, 2008

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nammvara sac-cid-nanda-rpa
lasat-kuala gokule bhrjamanam
yaod-bhyulkhald dhvamna
parmam atyantato dhrutya gopy 1
rudanta muhur netra-yugma mjantam
karmboja-yugmena staka-netram
muhu vsa-kampa-trirekhka-kaha
sthita-agraiva dmodara bhakti-baddham 2
itdk sva-llbhir nanda-kue
sva-ghoa nimajjantam khypayantam
tadyeita-jeu bhaktair jitatva
puna prematas ta atvtti vande 3
vara deva moka na mokvadhi v
na caanya ve ha vared apha
ida te vapur ntha gopla-bla
sad me manasy virst kim anyai 4
ida te mukhmbhojam atyanta-nlair
vta kuntalai snigdha-raktai ca gopy
muhu cumbita bimba-raktdhara me
manasy virstm ala laka-lbhai 5
namo deva dmodarnanta vio
prasda prabho dukha-jlbdhi-magnam
kp-di-vyti-dna batnu
ghea mm ajam edhyaki-dya 6
kuvertmajau baddha-mrtyaiva yadvat
tvay mocitau bhakti-bhjau ktau ca
tath prema-bhakti svak me prayaccha
na moke graho me sti dmodareha 7
namas te stu dmne sphurad-dpti-dhmne
tvadyodarytha vivasya dhmne
namo rdhikyai tvadya-priyyai
namo nanta-llya devya tubhyam 8
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